Review: BRIGHTON FRINGE REVIEW: WHEN I WAKE UP AGAIN, Streaming Now

I watched When I Wake Up Again as a pre-recorded stream rather than live, which is an inevitably different experience to an in-person Fringe show…but in some ways that distance actually suited the material. James and Johanna are the central protagonists (performed by Ayos Kerung  and Vero April (Ziyi) Zhou) and it’s their life story that we follow in this ambitious, immersive piece.

Multiple mediums are utilised to pull the viewer into its world - sound, music, visuals, and some deliberately jarring transitions that move us between past and present, as though we’re inside the James’ mind. It’s a disorientating experience – quite a feat when sat in the comfort of my own home.

That said, it’s not a perfect piece. It starts slowly and takes a while to fully find its rhythm. It’s also deeply sad. At its heart this is a story about love, loss and grief, and it doesn’t shy away from the harder edges of that. All of the action unfolds within the confines of a church, which gives the whole piece an added emotional weight and a haunting undertone to the choral singing.

Later in the show, the voices begin to drift out of sync with the actors on ‘stage’. I wasn’t entirely sure what this was trying to convey - perhaps a further unravelling of memory or identity - but it certainly added to the unsettled feeling of the piece. Whether it fully landed for me or not, it was a bold stylistic choice.

What stayed with me most was how it explores the ripple effect of loss across an entire family, not just one individual. Some of those moments are genuinely hard to watch, but that’s exactly what gives the piece its power.

A difficult watch at times, and not without its flaws, but ultimately a thoughtful and inventive addition to the Brighton Fringe.